2003 and all that
Dec. 30th, 2003 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroI'm not going to do the meme for various reasons, but here's my offering.
In the achievements column, I did a fair bit of travelling this year. In March we spent a week in Dorset, which was wonderful. Didn't see half as much as I would have liked, but we can go back any time. I like that there's somewhere as wonderful as Dorset so near to us.
May saw us take the car to the Languedoc, because I finally made the decision to go and see an area I'd been reading a lot about (Cathar heresy and Albigensian Crusade). Despite once again not seeing nearly all I'd intended, and not managing Montaillou and Montsegur, this was an utterly fantastic trip. I'd completely forgotten how much I love France. I hadn't used my French since 1990 but it came back quite nicely. I'd move there tomorrow given the chance.
November Whitby was a bit of a blowout from the "seeing new places" point of view - usually we go explore the countryside, but I set a new record for doing nothing but sleep. We had a really good day doing the stall for the animal shelter, and raised lots of money, but it was pretty exhausting.
Travel plans for 2004:
1. Meeting my parents on the Algarve the week before Easter. See various Age of Discovery stuff, eat seafood and digust everyone around me. See sun!!!
2. C10 via Toronto. Hoping to head out to Toronto about a week before C10 and then head on to Chicago. The reason I haven't yet committed to this is that I'm afraid it'll be like C8 - I'll be too ill to actually socialise and meet anyone. It's also going to be expensive. However, if we don't go then I'm not sure when to go home, as it gets too expensive any later in the season, and I don't want to leave it until the autumn. I can't go in February when it's cheap because I don't have enough annual leave left. Am similarly unconvinced about coming out looking for jobs - at this point in time my health isn't up to it. To a certain extent my CV speaks for itself, but there's still the annoying interview process.
There will probably be something in the autumn as well, possibly finally a stay at my friend's house in France, or taking advantage of new Easyjet flights from Bristol to Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Plus I really may get round to going to London to do tourist stuff. The problem there is that I keep reading about good obscure stuff to do and then losing the references.
Travel aside, 2003 was a bit of a write-off. The year started off awful, with nearly having to give up work altogether. Post France I had a really good period for about 4 months, but when I crashed I did so big time, and for about the 8th year in a row, I am more disabled than I was at the start of the year. I'm not dealing with it any better either - absolutely everything I want out of life involves being mentally and physically fitter.
I was supposed to have my loan paid off now, but it's beginning to look like I'll pay it off in June when the bank wants me to. This whole reduced income schtick sucks, especially as I'm not feeling like I have more time or energy since I started working less. I'm probably going to have to give up my "second" job at the hospital - I'm contracted to do some data entry for another department for a few hours a week, but people mess with my stuff when I'm not there and it's an absolutely toxic environment and therefore causes more stress than it's worth.
I read some good books, but not as many as I'd have liked. Ditto with listening to music, new and old. Made it out to the cinema about once.
I'm not bothering with formal New Year's Resolutions, but I need to lose weight. The most important element in emerging osteo arthritis is how much strain is put on your joints, and my knees are definitely telling me that my frame was not made to carry this much weight. Not being able to exercise makes this difficult - I already cut out eating a lot of junk and that hasn't had much effect, unless you count stopping me getting bigger.
I will also attempt to get off my arse and do more, rather than putting things off (I was always bad with this, but got a lot worse in the last few years). As a start, we made it to ROTK in December this year as opposed to February for the last two.
As soon as this flu goes away, that is...
In the achievements column, I did a fair bit of travelling this year. In March we spent a week in Dorset, which was wonderful. Didn't see half as much as I would have liked, but we can go back any time. I like that there's somewhere as wonderful as Dorset so near to us.
May saw us take the car to the Languedoc, because I finally made the decision to go and see an area I'd been reading a lot about (Cathar heresy and Albigensian Crusade). Despite once again not seeing nearly all I'd intended, and not managing Montaillou and Montsegur, this was an utterly fantastic trip. I'd completely forgotten how much I love France. I hadn't used my French since 1990 but it came back quite nicely. I'd move there tomorrow given the chance.
November Whitby was a bit of a blowout from the "seeing new places" point of view - usually we go explore the countryside, but I set a new record for doing nothing but sleep. We had a really good day doing the stall for the animal shelter, and raised lots of money, but it was pretty exhausting.
Travel plans for 2004:
1. Meeting my parents on the Algarve the week before Easter. See various Age of Discovery stuff, eat seafood and digust everyone around me. See sun!!!
2. C10 via Toronto. Hoping to head out to Toronto about a week before C10 and then head on to Chicago. The reason I haven't yet committed to this is that I'm afraid it'll be like C8 - I'll be too ill to actually socialise and meet anyone. It's also going to be expensive. However, if we don't go then I'm not sure when to go home, as it gets too expensive any later in the season, and I don't want to leave it until the autumn. I can't go in February when it's cheap because I don't have enough annual leave left. Am similarly unconvinced about coming out looking for jobs - at this point in time my health isn't up to it. To a certain extent my CV speaks for itself, but there's still the annoying interview process.
There will probably be something in the autumn as well, possibly finally a stay at my friend's house in France, or taking advantage of new Easyjet flights from Bristol to Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Plus I really may get round to going to London to do tourist stuff. The problem there is that I keep reading about good obscure stuff to do and then losing the references.
Travel aside, 2003 was a bit of a write-off. The year started off awful, with nearly having to give up work altogether. Post France I had a really good period for about 4 months, but when I crashed I did so big time, and for about the 8th year in a row, I am more disabled than I was at the start of the year. I'm not dealing with it any better either - absolutely everything I want out of life involves being mentally and physically fitter.
I was supposed to have my loan paid off now, but it's beginning to look like I'll pay it off in June when the bank wants me to. This whole reduced income schtick sucks, especially as I'm not feeling like I have more time or energy since I started working less. I'm probably going to have to give up my "second" job at the hospital - I'm contracted to do some data entry for another department for a few hours a week, but people mess with my stuff when I'm not there and it's an absolutely toxic environment and therefore causes more stress than it's worth.
I read some good books, but not as many as I'd have liked. Ditto with listening to music, new and old. Made it out to the cinema about once.
I'm not bothering with formal New Year's Resolutions, but I need to lose weight. The most important element in emerging osteo arthritis is how much strain is put on your joints, and my knees are definitely telling me that my frame was not made to carry this much weight. Not being able to exercise makes this difficult - I already cut out eating a lot of junk and that hasn't had much effect, unless you count stopping me getting bigger.
I will also attempt to get off my arse and do more, rather than putting things off (I was always bad with this, but got a lot worse in the last few years). As a start, we made it to ROTK in December this year as opposed to February for the last two.
As soon as this flu goes away, that is...
